Adams v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC
Adams v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC
Opinion of the Court
THIS CAUSE is before the Court on Defendant Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC ("Ocwen" or "Defendant")'s Motion to Dismiss [DE 16], filed on September 21, 2018. The Court has carefully considered the Motion, Plaintiff Justin Adams ("Adams" or "Plaintiff")'s Response [DE 17], Defendant's Reply [DE 18], and is otherwise fully advised in the premises.
I. BACKGROUND
The parties to this action are Plaintiff Adams and Defendant Ocwen. See Complaint [DE 1-1] at pp. 7-14. According to the allegations of the Complaint, which the Court assumes as true for purposes of this motion to dismiss:
Plaintiff is a Plaintiff is an individual residing in Macomb County, Michigan. Id. ¶ 7. Plaintiff is the owner, regular user and possessor of the cellular telephone number at issue, and was the called party and recipient of Defendant's calls. ¶ 23. Defendant is a business transacting business in the State of Florida with its principal place of business in West Palm Beach, FL. ¶ 8. Defendant began servicing the mortgage on Plaintiff's property in 2011. ¶ 21. Plaintiff specifically revoked consent to receive calls from Defendant on numerous occasions between July 2011 and January 2016. ¶ 26. Nevertheless, between July 2011 and January 2016, Defendant called Plaintiff's cellular telephone more than three-hundred and ten (310) times using an automatic telephone dialing system (hereinafter, "ATDS"), a predictive telephone dialing system (hereinafter, "PTDS"), and/or an artificial or pre-recorded voice (hereinafter, "APV") in an attempt to collect the an alleged debt due from Plaintiff on his residential home loan. ¶¶ 22, 27-30.
Based on this conduct, Plaintiff initiated this action in state court on or about July 19, 2018, bringing a claim for Violations of Telephone Consumer Protection Act,
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
To adequately plead a claim for relief, Rule 8(a)(2) requires "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). Under Rule 12(b)(6), a motion to dismiss should be granted only if the plaintiff *1353is unable to articulate "enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly ,
However, the court need not take allegations as true if they are merely "threadbare recitals of a cause of action's elements, supported by mere conclusory statements." Iqbal ,
III. DISCUSSION
First, Defendant asserts that Plaintiff's TCPA claim fails because Plaintiff has not sufficiently alleged the use of an automatic telephone dialing system ("ATDS") or an artificial or prerecorded voice. Second, Defendant asserts that Plaintiff's TCPA claim fails because debt collection calls are not covered by the TCPA. The Court will consider each argument in turn.
The TCPA prohibits anyone from using an automated telephone dialing system to call a cell phone number without the called party's prior express consent.
It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, or any person outside the United States if the recipient is within the United States ... [t]o make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice ... to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call.
Accordingly, to state a claim for violation of the TCPA, a plaintiff must provide sufficient support of the following elements: "(1) a call was made to a cell or wireless phone, (2) by the use of an automatic dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, and (3) without prior *1354express consent of the called party." Witchard v. Allied Interstate, LLC ,
The TCPA defines an "automatic telephone dialing system" as "equipment which has the capacity-(A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator, and (B) to dial such numbers."
Prior to the FCC's 2015 Order that has been since vacated, see ACA International v. Federal Communications Commission ,
However, as Defendant argues, the FCC's 2003 and 2008 Orders' interpretation of the statutory meaning of an ATDS were voided and vacated by the D.C. Circuit's recent decision in ACA , which struck down the FCC's 2015 Order interpreting what devices should be considered ATDSs under the TCPA. See, e.g. , Gonzalez v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, No. 5:18-CV-340-OC-30PRL,
*1355King v. Time Warner Cable Inc. ,
Nonetheless, upon careful consideration, the Court disagrees with Defendant about what devices do constitute an ATDS under the statutory definition, and finds Defendant's proposed interpretation overly restrictive
"[A]n ATDS is a device which has the capacity to (1) store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and (2) dial such numbers." See § 227(a)(1). Upon the Court's independent review of the relevant case law, the Court agrees with the reasoning and conclusions of post- ACA decisions which hold that "the statutory definition of ATDS includes a device that stores telephone numbers to be called, whether or not those numbers have been generated by a random or sequential number generator." Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC ,
Despite the ambiguity of the statutory definition of ATDS, reading the definition "in [its] context and with a view to [its] place in the overall statutory scheme," Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. , 529 U.S. at 133,120 S.Ct. 1291 , we conclude that the statutory definition of ATDS is not limited to devices with the capacity to call numbers produced by a "random or sequential number generator," but also includes devices with the capacity to dial stored numbers automatically. Accordingly, we read § 227(a)(1) to provide that the term automatic telephone dialing system means equipment which has the capacity-(1) to store numbers to be called or (2) to produce numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator-and to dial such numbers.
Marks ,
To sufficiently plead the ATDS element of a TCPA claim, a plaintiff may not merely recite the statutory elements of *1356the use of an ATDS or prerecorded voice without alleging additional facts to support those facts. See Johansen v. Vivant, Inc. ,
Second, Defendant asserts that Plaintiff's TCPA claim fails because debt collection calls are not covered by the TCPA. The Court rejects this argument. As explained by a recent district court opinion where Defendant Ocwen argued this precise issue:
While the Court agrees with Ocwen that the 2003 and 2008 Orders were vacated to the extent that the Court cannot apply the definitions of capacity or ATDS contained in those Orders, the Court disagrees with Ocwen's argument that other portions of those orders are also invalid. That is the premise of Ocwen's first argument why Gonzalez's TCPA claim should be dismissed: the TCPA does not apply to it because the 2003 Order which first applied the TCPA to debt collection calls is now invalid. But just because one aspect of an FCC order is vacated does not mean that the entire order has been vacated. As proof, this Court need look no further than ACA Int'l, in which the D.C. Circuit vacated two portions of the FCC's 2015 Order but upheld two other portions.885 F.3d at 691-92 . Ocwen has provided no authority for this Court to throw out the entirety of the 2003 Order-including the portion determining that the TCPA applies to debt collectors-as opposed to excising only the offending portion of the 2003 Order that the D.C. Circuit held is invalid. Instead, the Court concludes it is bound under the Hobbs Act to apply the FCC's rule that the TCPA does apply to calls made by debt collectors. Murphy v. DCI Biologicals Orlando, LLC ,797 F.3d 1302 , 1306-07 (11th Cir. 2015).
Gonzalez v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC , No. 5:18-CV-340-OC-30PRL,
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, it is ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that Defendant's Motion to Dismiss [DE 16] is DENIED . Defendant shall file an answer within fourteen (14) days of the date of this Order.
DONE and ORDERED in Chambers, at Ft. Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, this 26th day of October, 2018.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Justin ADAMS v. OCWEN LOAN SERVICING, LLC
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published